This is a re-hash of a previous post. I though an update would be in order. This is my opinion of the way our industry seems to be heading and what questions you can ask to avoid some of the potential pitfalls. So here goes.

1. Are you full time? (If the answer is no he may decide to do something else instead of photographing your wedding)

2. Do you have a vendors license? (If not, he may not pay sales tax. That means problems with the state. Confiscate equipment, heavy fines etc.)

3.Does you arrive with back-up equipment? (What if something breaks? This includes cameras, lenses, memory cards, flashes and batteries)

4. Do you have insurance? (This speaks for itself. What if something happens?)

5. How many weddings have you photographed? (A quality photographer should be capable of photographing many different events)

6. Do you have a real office and studio? (Do you really want to meet in someone's basement?)

7. Do you use professional processing and products? (We use high quality professional color processing and our albums are produced by a specialty album company from Italy)

8. Can you provide references? (Any good business should be able to provide references. Unless there are no good references)

9. Do you work well with other vendors? (A quality photographer has many contacts within the industry. We should all work together to provide the finest experience for our clients)

10. What are your prices? (Any vendor that does not list prices in their brochure or does not give them out until you visit their studio is potentially wasting your time. Why spend time with a vendor that is not within your budget?

This is just quick group of questions that I have had discussions with other wedding professionals about. We need to inform our clients about what to look for in a wedding professional. Hiring a true professional greatly decreases the possibility of having a less than great experience on your wedding day and disappointing results after. Remember that in life, you get what you pay for. Value is not always proportional to cost. A vendor that costs too little or too much is probably not a great value. Shop carefully for your wedding professionals. We hope you only need to hire us once!

These are some great tips for hiring a wedding photographer. My fiance and I want to have a pro help us capture the special day, so this is great. We'll be sure to find someone who's worked at a lot of different events and venues, like you said.

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John Hall

I have been a professional photographer in Northeast Ohio for over 30 years. This blog gives me an opportunity to express how I feel about what is going on in my little world.